BVSD: Alerts about Centaurus bomb evacuation should have gone out sooner

By Mitchell Byars, Camera Staff Writer

Posted:
05/14/2013 11:23:26 AM MDT

Students at Centaurus High School wait outside after being evacuated Monday, May 13, 2013, due to a suspicious device that was found inside. (Jessica Cuneo / Daily Camera)

Officials from the Boulder Valley School District and Centaurus High School acknowledged Tuesday that notifications about the pipe bomb incident at the Lafayette school should have been sent out more quickly.

In an email to parents, the district and the school said "communications should have gone out sooner yesterday and that a phone message (along with texts and Twitter messages for those who have signed up for them) needed to have gone out as well."

"We also agreed that sending you the confirmed information that we have when we have it is usually preferable to waiting for the most complete information as was done yesterday."

Police were first called to the school around 9 a.m. Monday after a teacher found an explosive device similar to a pipe bomb in a paper bag. The teacher -- who the district has not identified -- took the device outside, police said, and the school was evacuated to a field at nearby Ryan Elementary before the students were released for the day.

The district sent a note around 11 a.m. Monday -- about two hours after the school was cleared out -- to parents and faculty members informing them of the investigation and evacuation. The district sent a second note around 3 p.m. Monday letting parents know that the school building and parking lot would remain closed for the evening, with no access to the cars in the parking lot.

Centaurus Principal Rhonda Haniford sent a third note to parents Monday night, letting them know that school counselors would be available Tuesday to talk to students and staff members.

"I know that today has been a stressful day for each of our families, staff and our students," she wrote. "Thank you for your support and cooperation as we work to return operations to normal at Centaurus High School and celebrate the end of an otherwise terrific year at a fine school."

Both the school and the district have elected not to comment further on the incident.